


Not His Type

by TheTimeTraveler24



Series: Happy 27th Birthday, Percy! [1]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan, The Trials of Apollo - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/M, Gen, M/M, Nico and Percy have a much needed talk, Nico di Angelo & Percy Jackson Friendship, One Shot, Post-The Blood of Olympus (Heroes of Olympus), but also technically a one-shot, i swear this isnt about the not my type jokes, technically part of Always Towards the Sun if you're wondering
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-18
Updated: 2020-08-18
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:06:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25977925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheTimeTraveler24/pseuds/TheTimeTraveler24
Summary: Takes place after Blood of Olympus.Percy visits Nico in the infirmary to have a much needed conversation.
Relationships: Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson, Nico di Angelo & Will Solace, Nico di Angelo/Will Solace
Series: Happy 27th Birthday, Percy! [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1885465
Comments: 10
Kudos: 248





	Not His Type

**Author's Note:**

> Technically can go along with Chapter 47: Day One of Always Towards the Sun but you don't have to read that first. I just used some of the dialogue from there.

“Have you seen Nico?” Percy asked Jason.

Jason frowned. “Last I saw him he was talking to Will Solace. Head of Apollo cabin?”

Percy nodded. “Yeah, I… I know.” He stared at the spot by the hearth in the center of the cabin commons. “I was just… I need to talk to him about… something.”

“You could probably ask Will,” Jason suggested. “You know, where Nico went after that.”

“Yeah, okay,” Percy sighed. He turned to walk towards the infirmary.

Jason pulled him back. “Are you okay?”

“Not really,” Percy admitted. “I mean, I always felt a little guilty about the whole Nico thing with Bianca and then him not feeling welcome at Camp, but… I never really knew how badly I ruined Nico’s life until today.”

“You didn’t ruin his life, Percy,” Jason said.

Percy shook his head. “Yeah. I did. And the worst part is that I didn’t even realize how much I hurt him.” He turned around. “I have to go talk to him.”

Jason didn’t stop him this time, but Percy got the feeling that Jason knew exactly what he was talking about.

As he walked to the infirmary where Will Solace hopefully would be able to tell Percy where Nico went, Percy ran over the conversation in his head.

_ “Since we’re going to be spending at least a year seeing each other at Camp, I think I should clear the air.” _

_ “What do you mean?” _

_ “For a long time, I had a crush on you. I just wanted you to know.” _

_ “You-” _

_ “Yeah. You’re a great person. But I’m over that. I’m happy for you guys.” _

_ “You… so you mean-” _

_ “Right.” _

_ “Wait. So you mean-” _

_ “Right. But it’s cool. We’re cool. I mean, I see now… you’re cute, but you’re not my type.” _

_ “I’m not your type… Wait. So-” _

_ “See you around, Percy. Annabeth.” _

Nico di Angelo had a crush on him. Percy Jackson. The guy who’d single-handedly gotten Bianca killed. Okay, maybe the defective Talos statue had a small part in that. And, yeah, maybe Bianca took something from the junkyard Aphrodite had very clearly warned them not to take anything from. But Percy promised to keep her safe. And he had failed.

And he thought that Nico  _ hated _ him for that. For years, there was always this feeling that Nico hated him for not protecting his sister.

Gods, he really was blind. First, he couldn’t figure out how Annabeth felt. Then, it was Rachel. Even Calypso and Reyna had taken a while to figure out. But he had figured it out eventually at least.

With Nico, Percy didn’t even know until Nico straight up told him. And that was apparently after Nico had enough time to get over Percy.

At least Percy had been able to let Reyna down gently. But he had let Nico silently hope that one day Percy Jackson would figure out that Nico liked him.

_ Great job, Jackson _ , he mentally scolded himself.  _ Nico probably hates you. Again. _

Well, no. Nico said they were cool, but still. After Annabeth had finally knocked him out of his stupor, she not-so-gently told him that he needed to go talk to Nico.

_ “He just poured out his probably deepest secret for you and you couldn’t even form a complete sentence,” Annabeth said, crossing her arms. “Don’t you think maybe he deserves more than that?” _

_ “I don’t understand,” Percy said, frowning at the ground. “I don’t… Nico…” _

_ Annabeth took a deep breath. “Some guys like guys and some girls like girls, Percy. And that is perfectly okay.” _

_ “No, I know that,” Percy said giving her a how-dumb-do-you-think-I-am look. “But… but why me?” _

_ “You should probably ask him that,” she said. “Now go talk to him. Now.” She shoved Percy away. _

Percy paused before entering the infirmary. Steeling himself, he walked in.

“Hey, Percy,” Kayla greeted him.

Percy tried for a smile. “Hi, Kayla. Um, is Will here? I was hoping he knew where Nico was.”

Kayla’s hand flew to her mouth to hide a smile. She laughed.

“What?” Percy asked worriedly. “What did I say?”

Kayla stopped laughing, but she was still smiling. “Nico’s here. Will dragged him in. Um, they’re actually back there,” she said gesturing over her shoulder. “You want to talk to Nico, right?”

Percy stared at her. “You know?”

Kayla gave him a weird look. “Uh, that  _ is _ why you’re looking for Nico, right? To talk to him about something? Because if you were planning to ask for a sparring partner, I’ll give you a warning that you should just walk right back out. Will would murder you if you tried to spar with Nico right now. He needs rest.”

“Yeah,” Percy said quickly. “Yeah, I… I wanted to talk to Nico.”

Kayla didn’t look very convinced, but she waved him towards a bed near the back of the infirmary. “He’s down there.”

Percy thanked her and walked down the row of hospital beds towards Nico. He could see Will and Nico talking.

“I don’t need another reason to be-”

“Hailed a hero?” Will suggested.

“I was going to say different,” Nico said flatly. But Percy noticed that Nico kind of sat up a little straighter after Will’s comment.

Percy took a deep breath. “Nico, can we talk?” he asked.

Will and Nico looked up. Percy really hoped he didn’t look as nervous as he felt. Knowing his luck, Will would want to confine  _ him _ to the infirmary. And he would probably get stuck one bed over from Nico. This didn’t help his nerves at all.

“It’s fine, Percy,” Nico said. “I told you I’m over it. You don’t owe me anything.”

“Yeah I do,” Percy said, glancing at Will.

Will got the message. “I’ll just go.”

“So,” Percy said awkwardly as Will walked away. “Will Solace?”

Nico glared at Percy. “No.”

Percy sat down in the chair Will vacated. He didn’t say anything for a minute.

“I’m sorry,” he blurted.

Nico gave him a strange look. “For what? Not… not noticing? No offense, Percy, but you aren’t the most observant guy. I mean, I was in the Labyrinth with you and Annabeth and Rachel. Even I knew what was going on. You… you did not.”

“I should have noticed,” Percy said quietly. “Nico… I really messed up with you. And I’m sorry.”

“I forgave you a long time ago for Bianca,” Nico said. “I… I never should have blamed you in the first place.”

Percy looked down. “I’m not just talking about that. But I wanted to ask you something. Why… why me? Surely there was some guy who was better than me. Someone who treated you better than me?”

Nico picked at the sheets on the bed. “You remember I used to play Mythomagic?”

Percy snorted. “How could I forget?”

“I’m glad no one else remembers that,” Nico muttered. “Well, you know, you and Thalia and Annabeth were pretty much the first demigods I ever met. And you came to save Bianca and I from that manticore.”

Percy’s jaw clenched at the mention of Dr. Thorne. It had been years since he thought about him. The monster who had kidnapped Annabeth and taken her to the Mountain of Despair where Luke tricked her into taking the sky.

Then he felt guilty for thinking about his girlfriend while Nico was trying to explain why he had the crush in the first place.

“Yeah, so you were kind of the real life Mythomagic,” Nico mumbled. “And you did all this cool stuff that I heard about. I just kind of built up this perfect image of you in my head. But you aren’t perfect. I mean, my image of you wasn’t realistic at all. You’re human, and you’re allowed to make mistakes.” He shrugged. “So… that’s it.” He looked vaguely uncomfortable. “Just don’t blame yourself for everything.”

“I still should have been better to you.” Percy paused. “And for what it’s worth… thanks for telling me. And I guess, um…”

“Annabeth?” Nico prompted. “I said I’m over you, Percy. You’re allowed to talk about your girlfriend.”

Percy gave Nico a sheepish look. “Sorry.”

They sat in silence for another minute.

“Seriously though,” Percy finally said. “Will Solace?”

Nico’s face turned pink. “No.”

“You were having a nice conversation together.”

“I was telling him that I was in Tartarus,” Nico said flatly.

Percy faltered. “Well, he called you a hero.”

“Will forced me to stay here because I overused my, and I quote, ‘Underworld-y powers’ too much in the past few weeks,” Nico said. “He’s annoying and he could have gotten us killed by Romans.”

“Well, a little advice from the oblivious dude,” Percy said. “Don’t wait around because a few things will inevitably happen. One, Aphrodite will send a hundred love triangles your way. Two, the world will almost end. And three, some dumb goddess will remove your memory and kidnap you when you’ve only just finally started dating someone.”

“I will laugh when one of the gods finally turns you into that dolphin Mr. D has been threatening you with,” Nico informed him.

“Frank turned into a crazy dolphin,” Percy said with a grin.

Nico blinked. “What?”

“Nothing. Nevermind. I’ll just leave now. But I’m sure Will would be happy to come back over here.”

Nico’s face turned pink again. He made a shooing gesture at Percy. “Go away, Percy.”

Percy laughed. “Okay, okay. Bye, Nico,” he said, waving as he left.

He ran into Jason not too long after that.

“Did you find Nico?” Jason asked him.

Percy nodded. “Yeah. Will has him resting in the infirmary I guess.”

“Did you talk to him about… whatever it was you needed to talk about?”

“Yeah,” Percy said. “We’re good.”

_ We’re good _ .

**Author's Note:**

> As part of the fics I am posting to celebrate Percy's birthday, I'm kicking it off with this.
> 
> Personally, I think Percy was in shock that Nico had a crush on him because he was under the impression that Nico hated him for Bianca. I don't think he was sputtering because he "wasn't Nico's type" though I fully support the idea that Percy brings that up as a joke later when Nico does anything to do with water and Nico brings it up to annoy Percy.


End file.
